The present invention relates to an elevator group supervisory system. More particularly the invention concerns an elevator call registration unit wherein an elevator satisfying the condition a user makes is called selectively from a plurality of elevators.
A conventional call registration unit of an elevator group supervisory system is constructed of a pair of up/down buttons. Upon actuation of the button, an elevator having the shortest waiting time is selected from a plurality of elevators, and a reservation lamp for the elevator is turned on.
A user is satisfied with an elevator having the shortest waiting time in most cases. However, a user is dissatisfied with such a elevator in the following cases.
(1) Although a user called an elevator so as to carry wagons in it, the assigned elevator is crowded so that the user cannot carry the wagons therein.
(2) At a building whose elevator system is arranged such that only some of the elevators are for service to the ground floor, if a user who wants to go to the ground floor is assigned an elevator not serviceable to the ground floor, then the user cannot go down to the ground floor in the responding elevator.
To deal with such cases, a specially mounted calling button has been proposed. This specially mounted calling button is provided in addition to the general calling button. Upon actuation of this special button, a certain elevator assigned to the button is called. As the buttons of this type, systems are known which have a button for calling an elevator dedicated to users of wheelchairs, a button for calling an elevator used by very important persons, a button for calling an elevator which is not-crowded, a button for instructing that a user wants to go to a floor to which only some of elevators are serviceable and the like (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication JP-A-51-7653 and etc.).
With the above type of prior art system, a button becomes necessary for each special function so that a plurality of buttons for special functions must be provided at each elevator hall, resulting in an increase of wirings, controllers and installation cost.
To solve the above problems, there is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication JP-A-59-114271 a system providing a special call command which is generated by employing a special operation method of a hall calling button (coded call unit).
However, users who do not know the special operation method cannot use the coded call unit. In addition, various functions are each designated by a combination of short and long operation times of a single button so that erroneous operation may increase.
Another prior art technique for an elevator group supervisory system is known which is capable of displaying general information such as events guidance at each floor, weather forecast and the like on a display mounted at the hall or within the elevator cage. Such a technique is disclosed, e.g. in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications JP-A-60-191977, JP-A-61-136887, JP-A-61-226479 and the like.
According to the prior art technique disclosed in JP-A-60-191977 and JP-A-61-136887, a display mode is selectively controlled whereby a message having an optimum length from the display start to the end is selected based on the waiting time, or the speed of scrolling a message is changed based on the waiting time. According to the prior art technique disclosed in JP-A-61-226479, the display information content is selectively displayed at each floor within the cage.
All of the above-described prior art techniques are characterized in that they provide mainly a method of displaying general information rather than operation information of an elevator. Apart from these techniques, another technique is disclosed, e.g. in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication JP-A-62-186707 wherein a display having a function to alternately display general information and the operation information of an elevator is provided and the operation information of an elevator is displayed with a priority over the general information under a predetermined condition.
The above-described prior art technique is effective as a method of announcing the operation information of an elevator and the general information. However, this technique does not positively change the control operation of an elevator in accordance with the announced information. A user cannot change the operation of an elevator by using the guidance information, thus posing a problem of actually effective display.
The following two U.S. patent applications assigned to the same assignee are related to elevator control systems.
Y. Morita et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 301,973 filed on Jan. 26, 1989 claiming priority based on Japanese patent application Nos. 63-16983, 63-16984, 63-47480, 63-51493 and 63-53532 filed on Jan. 29, 1988, Jan. 29, 1988, Mar. 2, 1988, Mar. 7, 1988 and Mar. 9, 1988, respectively.
K. Yoneda et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 330,376 filed on Ma. 1, 1989 claiming priority based o Japanese patent application No. 63-49536 filed on Mar. 4, 1988.